Joe Manganiello’s Live-Action ‘Dragonlance’ Show is Reportedly Dead in Water
In a new interview, actor and D&D mega fan Joe Manganiello reports that the live action Dragonlance project is no longer happening.
Pour one out for what might have been, the live-action Dragonlance TV show that may have been helmed by everyone’s second favorite werewolf, Joe Manganiello, is reportedly dead in the water. In a new interview with Comicbook.com, the Deathstroke actor and DM to like 80% of the people that Gen. X looks up to, stated that the live-action Dragonlance project was no longer moving forward.
Stating that Wizards of the Coast was not interested in developing Dragonlance further, Manganiello outlined a number of issues going on behind the scenes with the project including a lukewarm reception of the recent Dragonlance adventure/board game release. Here’s what we know.
Manganiello’s Dragonlance – A Vision of the Novels
According to Comicbook.com, Manganiello had planned to turn the Dragonlance novel series into a long-running fantasy TV show. With a script that had received high praise, and excitement from the original creators, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Manganiello was lining up quite a few moving parts:
Tracy and Margaret were all about it, it was really me getting in there and fleshing out the world they built, and a world they hinted at in some places but didn’t shine the magnifying glass on.
Despite having new concepts for dragons, armor, and the world of Dragonlance, the actor was most enthusiastic about his script. Manganiello had even been in talks to buy the rights to Dragonlance, because the problem, at least in the would-be showrunner’s eyes, lies in WotC:
“Maybe somewhere down the line, someone comes back or the company switches hands and somebody sees the value.”
This may come in part from the recent shakeups at WotC. In the wake of Chris Cocks stepping up to be CEO of Hasbro, and Cynthia Williams stepping in as new WotC CEO, Wizards has undergone a reevaluation of its policies. And while some of the changes in attitude might be reflected in the leadership—Williams has previously suggested that D&D is under-monetized—that’s what comes from corporations out there corporationing unfettered.
WotC’s goal is to make the most money. It just so happens that a D&D cinematic universe with multiple shows was once an idea that might have done that. As a company WotC doesn’t care about what it makes—the people working there do.
But with Dragonlance‘s new adventure being “good but not great” and the adventure board game experiment an abysmal failure, WotC was already likely wavering. And as Hasbro loses more money, and sells off more wings, including eOne, everyone under its umbrella faces an ever-tightening belt.
In the meantime, there’s always that Dragonlance musical…
